One on One between Ascadellia and Mira-charma13


Profile
Name: Lyra Dawson
Age: 18
Gender: Female
Appearance:


There was a large enough crowd today at the Georgia Aquarium, like any other day it seemed. A girl traveling with two other friends, another female and a male, was making her way inside the vast aquarium, she was wearing a dark blue, long sleeved shirt with a pair of jeans and carrying a black purse. They were going to check out the newest attraction, one that would 'shock and amaze all.' though, her friends didn't want to wait in line or be with that many people, so they had decided to opt out. "Hey Lyra, just take a bunch of pictures, we'll meet you at the food court in an hour kay?" the other female had said before nudging her friend away, walking away from the girl. The girl, Lyra, standing at about five foot six with dark hair reaching mid back looked back to see the two heading to the penguin section. She gave a small sigh, "Impatient." she had muttered, shaking her head as she continued to the exhibit. Her dark purple eyes scanned the various other sights along the way, slowly getting excited. Though the crowd really was slightly on the large side, it only meant that the attraction would be worth it. She could only guess at what it was though, maybe a rare type of fish, or something thought to have been extinct.

Name: Léandre Skelter
Age: Seventeen
Gender: Male
Appeareance:



The buzz of conversation in the room was nearly deafening, even though no one was screaming.

"I heard it's a whale--a really big blue whale, and--"

"Well, personally, I just think it's some fancy shark. What else could it be?"

"A big, artificial coral reef, and lots of exotic fish and--"

It seemed that despite the excitement of the aquarium's staff, the nature of this new attraction had not not been leaked to the public. If the aquarium was making such an effort to keep it under wraps, it must have been incredible.

The owner and manager of the aquarium, along with several employees, was standing at a podium in front of a large tank, which had a curtain over it. There seemed to be some kind of high-pitched, soft wail coming from behind the tank. It was faint, but it was there--it sounded...distressed. It was accompanied by several bumping and scratching sounds.

"Ladies and gentleman! May I have your attention, please?" The man called, an excited expression on his round race. "We are pleased to announce that we have a new addition to our line-up!"

He prattled on about how wonderful the patrons had made the aquarium and how their contribution was helping them along with this project. He took a while, so people began to whisper and gossip about the strange noises coming from the tank.

Lyra tilted her head at the tank. Almost as if trying to visualize the sort of creature that was behind the curtains. She pushed her way a little through the crowd, being careful not to hurt or step on someone's feet as she got closer to the front. As the man kept droning on about how wonderful the thing was, she rolled her eyes a little, slightly bouncing on her feet as the excitement and slight impatience built up. "Huuurry. No one really cares, we just want to see."she muttered softly to herself. The noises were worrying her though. 'Maybe one of the animals was just a little late on adjusting to the new habitat. Maybe it Was a huge exhibit with new animals, instead of just one thing.' She shook her head to disperse of the thoughts. It was better to just see instead of thinking about it.

After a while of droning on, the owner cleared his throat and stepped away from the front of the tank. "I will say that this creature is a new species. One that has been sighted and talked about before, but never captured." He paused for a moment when a particularly loud, snarl-like noise permeated the glass.

"...My apologies, he's a bit feisty. Ahem! Without further ado..."

Slowly, the man and his employees pulled the curtain back. For a moment, it looked like an empty tank, decorated with fake Roman columns on the side and several caves. Then the noise sounded again, and a pale, fast-moving ball sped out of one of the caves and smacked its tail on the glass.

It was a merman. A bona-fide merman, with silky golden hair and bright blue eyes. He had pale skin, and a bluish-purple tail that seemed kind of dull in the artificial life. He froze suddenly, distracted from his rampaging by the hundreds, possibly up to a thousand or more, humans staring at him, speechless.

Lyra had chuckled somewhat at his apology for the creatures attitude. 'So, it was a he?' Well, it was slightly amusing, though again, it didn't seem like he liked the environment. Once the curtains were gone, her eyes quickly scoped the tank, looking for the signs of Something. She blinked rapidly as the ball hit the glass, and once she got a clear look at what exactly had been found, her eyes widened considerably at this. "Woah.." she said softly, though, since everything had gone quiet, this sounded a bit louder than she had intended. She didn't seem to care though as she blinked, staring at the merman. "Where did you find him?" she asked curiously, glancing back at the man before looking back at the merman.

"A fishing boat caught him in one of their trawling nets," the man explained, chuckling. Like he thought the creature's distress was...funny. "They brought him here. I wish we could have captured a female, as well...then we could have bred them..."

The merman stayed frozen for a moment, and then he backed away from the glass, pressing himself against the wall farthest away from the staring humans. The barely-visible gills on his neck were moving very quickly, like...he was breathing heavily? He looked heavily agitated, like a snake, coiled up and poised for attack. From the looks of him, he was a teenager...seventeen or eighteen...

She frowned somewhat and raised an eyebrow. "Found him trapped? How long ago was this?" she asked again, not very fond anymore of the man. She also didn't care if she was asking so many questions. She wanted to know. Not that she was fond of him in the first place. In a way, she felt bad for the boy. He seemed her age, and to be put through this.. Well, it wasn't really fair. And here the man was talking about breeding him with a mermaid. She shook her head lightly but looked at the merman. Poor guy must be scared out of his wits, no wonder he was angry earlier.

"I don't know if I like your tone, young lady," the man muttered, then raised his voice again. "A fisherman in the Bering Sea captured him a week ago. It took us a week to get the enclosure set up and two days to transport him here. We found he can breathe out of water for more than twenty-four hours."

The merman didn't want to hide in the artificial caves again--they didn't smell like the caves he had back home. They smelled like chlorine, like foreign rocks. There weren't even any fish in this place for him to eat. He was in complete distress. He glanced at the wall as people started crowding more around the cage, taking pictures and poking at the glass.

Lyra almost sighed but nodded, then looking back at the man. "Well, that's all good I suppose, what does he get to eat?" she asked, in a slightly more 'innocent' tone. She didn't want to get kicked out for being rude, not yet. Figuring that the boy was a bit panicked, since going from no people gawking to many people gawking, she almost felt a pang of guilt of having been among the ones to have almost been taking pictures and the like. Of course, that would have been with fish, this, this was a person. 'Okay, maybe not so person, but he's partly one.' she corrected. It was also a big tank, and only seemed to have decorations.

( I'm back! And we watched The A-Team. <3 )

((I had to get offline. D: I have a family thing today and was falling asleep. Sorry I didn't say!))

"We tried nearly everything, but we've found he eats live fish, of any kind," the man commented, seeing that she'd calmed down. There was a buzz of conversation all around them. "We tried feeding him bits of dead fish, but he refused to eat them." He paused. "I'm concerned about the upkeep of the tank. We tried to send in a scuba diver to clean and he attacked him."

She chuckled lightly before quickly muffling it. It would seem rude, but it was what they sort of deserved for having caught the merman. Tilting her head she blinked, glancing back at the merman and the tank itself. "So he'd attack anyone that goes in there? Um, why is there no other fish in there, if he does eat live fish?" she asked again. It seemed way too big for just one 'attraction'. The whole thing with cleaning the tank though, would become a problem. It wasn't like the ocean where things just happened naturally and could be a big health issue to the merman.

( Aaah, that's fine. No worries there. What's the family thing? )

((I'm going out with my half brother in about two hours or so to see The Rocky Horror Picture Show live. :3))

"We put fish in there three times a day. We put ten or twenty in this morning, and he ate them all already," he chuckled. "It seems that the stress is making him quite hungry." The man still seemed to find this all incredibly amusing. Like it was all some show.

The merman attempted to hide, so he was out of sight, but the only place he could hide where he was completely hidden was in those caves, and they smelled and felt awful...he looked so out of place and lost...

At those last words she almost glared at the man, but instead she just nodded and pretended to look as interested as a teenager could look. "Ah, that's, kinda sad." She said, though her tone was calm as she looked at the man again. She felt genuinely sorry for the merman and some of the things the crowd was doing wasn't helping. If anything, it looked like it was making him even more so stressed. People, more like some of the children making faces at him and tapping at the glass. She never liked those sort of things, so she could imagine what he was going through slightly. "So, what times do you feed him? And, do you let him have any rest from the crowds in between then?" she asked.

( o.o That sounds awesome. You get to see horror movies? )

((Indeed!))

"Rest from the crowds? Are you kidding me? He'll be the main attraction for years to come!" The man exclaimed, as if he thought the idea was completely ridiculous. "He'll always be available for the crowds to see during opening time. More money, that way. We feed him at five in the morning, at noon, and at six in the evening."

The merman's arms were shaking. He wasn't putting on as much of a show as some of the spectators wanted, and they started complaining that they came here to see something interesting.

Lyra, at hearing that, snapped her head back to the man, giving him a cold glare at the mention of no rest from the prying eyes. She hid it though, a moment later. No reason to attract suspicion on her part. Her mind was thinking up of ways, to somehow help the boy. This wasn't right, not humane in any shape or form. At hearing the people complain about the mermans ways, and that he wasn't giving them a show, she almost smirked. "Ah.. But, it might be better for him, his health if he had some sort of rest between the crowds. Maybe that could even warm him up, since right now he doesn't seem willing to do anything." she suggested, nodding to the merman.

( Sounds like it would be very fun. I like horror movies as well, but sometimes can't finish them because of the suspense. x.x; It's the waiting for the certain something that gets me more than anything else. )

"Nonsense. The more time he spends in front of the crowds, the more used to them he will get." The man paused, then chuckled. "You seem interested--you ask a lot of questions! How would you like to feed him? It's getting around noon. My treat." He knew the crowds would like this.

The merman swam around near the back of the tank, as far away from the crowd as possible. He was trying to distract himself from the staring, in any way possible.

Lyra offered a small, sheepish smile. "Well, I've been told that before." she admitted. Her friends had always told her she should become some sort of news person or something, with how many questions she always asked. Especially with things that caught her attention. This was just one of them. She blinked, her eyes a tad wide now as she looked at the man. "I can feed him?" she asked, slightly bewildered. She smiled a little and nodded. "I would like to do that. How though?" She still didn't like him, but this was at least a small point in his favor. It would be interesting.

"Inside the tank, there is a walkway above the water. We use that to walk along and drop the fish in. You can go in along that walkway with a live fish--a small one--and either drop it inside or kneel down along the railing and offer it to him by hand." The man seemed to fidget about the last one. "If you try to handfeed him, please make sure he doesn't attack your hand."

Now that the merman was moving around, the people seemed appeased. He hadn't moving before. He still looked agitated.

She smirked and nodded, looking back at the tank at the merman. "Alright. It sounded easy enough." She stated. Drop or hand it over to the merman. And make sure not to get hurt in the process. She gave another small nod, mostly for herself before glancing at the man and tilting her head at him."When can we go?" she asked, slightly eager. Who knew, maybe she could scope the tank a little closer.

The man pointed to two of the employees, who had started moving along, heading for the entrance to the top part of the tank. "You can follow them. They're going to open the doors for you. Would you like a small bucket of fish? They can provide that for you, so just ask them."

The merman's swimming seemed forlorn, lazy. He didn't want to do amazing tricks for these people. He just wanted to go home.

She nodded somewhat as she started walking after the two employees. She did give a small wave to the man though, since she didn't want to see rude. Looking to one of them she tilted her head, thinking on something. "Do I feed the merman the whole bucket of fish or just a couple of them?" she asked after a moment, unsure of how much she should give him.

"One fish at a time, but you can give him as many as you want while you're there," the employee, a tall, well-built man, grunted. He led her, with his buddy, up a flight of stairs and then, using his keycard and a password, opened the door at the top of them. The area above the water in the tank was cool and smelled like seawater, which is what it was probably filled with.

Stepping into the small room near the back of this walkway, the guards fumbled around and then returned with a bucket full of splashing, live fish. "Here you are."

The merman heard people coming into the tank, and he looked positively peeved. He watched the walkway warily.

Lyra nodded, having noted with a small pang of disappointment that they had to have a password along with a keycard. 'Great.' she thought to herself as she accepted the bucket. She took a small breath and smiled lightly. "Alright then. Thank you." she said with an innocent tone before tilting her head and looking at the water as she started to go towards the walkway with the bucket full of fish. Once at a respectable distance from the door, her eyes looked around, not caring if anyone saw her or not. "Good thing I'm not squeamish with fish." She muttered to herself in a light tone as she looked for the merman close-by. "Lunch time?" she questioned, wondering if it'd work, or if he could understand her. She knelt down near the edge, like the man said and offered one of the fish, holding it carefully by it's tail so the boy could grab it easily.

At the sight of the fish, the merman's stomach grumbled. However, he couldn't bring himself to swim up. He also heard her say something along the lines of 'Lunch time.' He broke away from the wall a little bit, his eyes filled with venom, and then glared at the guards, who were watching nearby. There was absolutely no way he was moving up there when those horrible people, the guards, were nearby. They treated him like he was some sort of animal.

She tilted her head again as she saw the look in the mermans eyes. "Ne?" She glanced back at the guards and bit her lip, thinking. "I think, he doesn't like you two. And, isn't going to eat unless you two back away or something." she said, looking at them curiously. "Maybe you two could just, hide or something?" she asked innocently.